@tMeeker,
I was just browsing through and I saw this forum, and consequently this thread and decided to sign up and you know, share my opinions and the like.
I think your point is an interesting one, who's ideas exactly are influencing our world today? Well historically it has been those with power, or well control over others but it has allegedly shifted now to the people, with democracy and the like. But it would be naive to think that everyman's idea can have direct influence on his environment, like every other society, we are a product of our times. Its an amalgamation of ideas, and thinkers that create where we are at today. So its less controlled, but more evolved into what it is.
So from that, I would say society collectively, is what controls our morality and values.
Quote: I think the difficulty may lie partly in viewing ideas and reality as separate. Everything that exists boils down to the same thing: electrons, protons, quarks, it's all made of the same stuff.
So, ideas can shape the world, and the world can shape ideas. One isn't always dependent on the other. Ideas come into being when the world affects our brains, which create the ideas, which affect our bodies, which can affect the world if we use them in a particular way, ie to bring attention to our idea and make it happen on a large scale.
Perhaps it is the other way around? Idealists would hold that everything that exists or can exist is essentially mental. And I would agree that ideas are primarily what create the world we have in the here and now.
Humans came into this world with nothing but nature, all social constructs and order, all taboos, all morality [at least if you take God out of the equation] is formed by ideas. The world didn't suddenly affect our brains to make us believe that stealing is wrong or adultery is bad, these are shaped by ideas.